If this is your first visit, you may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Serious help required please.

First of all, I am a newbie to this (website & virtual tours) and finding it all a bit daunting.

I have recently bought an R1 from Bill at Nodal Ninja (thanks for that!). I have that sat on a Manfrotto 190XPROB and am using a Sigma 8mm f/3.5 F3.5 EX DG on a Canon EOS 450D.

I have had VERY limited experience of producing virtual tours and want to seriously get into this area. Having bought all this via recommendation, I am now feeling I have bitten off more than I can chew it feels!.

and really am not sure what this all means and how to find a NNP etc. I did think I would be taking 4 shots at 90 degrees and the nadir & zenith, but I have very quickly realised there is a lot more to it than that!
Is there a straightforward set of explanantions and instructions anywhere and I am finding it difficult to set my equipment up right? The setup/settings is what I am struggling with. Producing the pano image within Panoweaver and tours within Tourweaver is not a problem. This is an area I have worked in with images supplied, but now want to be taking the images.

I would very serioulsly appreciate any help/advice that anyone can give me and many thanks in advance.
Wozza.

Re: Serious help required please.

First of all, I am a newbie to this (website & virtual tours) and finding it all a bit daunting.

I have recently bought an R1 from Bill at Nodal Ninja (thanks for that!). I have that sat on a Manfrotto 190XPROB and am using a Sigma 8mm f/3.5 F3.5 EX DG on a Canon EOS 450D.

I have had VERY limited experience of producing virtual tours and want to seriously get into this area. Having bought all this via recommendation, I am now feeling I have bitten off more than I can chew it feels!.

and really am not sure what this all means and how to find a NNP etc. I did think I would be taking 4 shots at 90 degrees and the nadir & zenith, but I have very quickly realised there is a lot more to it than that!
Is there a straightforward set of explanantions and instructions anywhere and I am finding it difficult to set my equipment up right? The setup/settings is what I am struggling with. Producing the pano image within Panoweaver and tours within Tourweaver is not a problem. This is an area I have worked in with images supplied, but now want to be taking the images.

I would very serioulsly appreciate any help/advice that anyone can give me and many thanks in advance.
Wozza.

Basically, you only take 2 shots around with a interval at 90 deg. You don&#039;t need zenith shot when you are using a tilt of +5 deg or +7.5 deg. There is more overlap at zenith for +7.5 deg. You can a nadir shot hand held or on R1 as shown in the manual.

Re: Serious help required please.

Thanks for the advice, however I am confused still about these &#039;tilts&#039; and also you say the number of shots taken would only be 3 (bracketing aside). Within Panoweaver 5.0, selecting the Drum Fisheye option, a minimum of 4 shots is required. Is it a case of it can be done with 3 shots but 4 at 90 degrees plus the nadir would better or better still better still, 4 at 90 degrees plus the nadir and zenith? If this is the case, would the tilt angles still have to be as you described?

Sorry to probably be asking dumb questions, but I want to get going and I am definitely finding it a little confusing and far from being as simple as I thought it would be!!

Re: Serious help required please.

Nick has inadvertently confused you by saying you need 2 shots with a yaw increment of 90 degrees when he obviously intended to say 4 shots. If you were to shoot a panorama with the camera level, you would find that there were holes at the zenith and the nadir of the stitched image. This is because the vertical angle of view covered by the Sigma lens on your camera is less than 180 degrees (around 168 degrees). To get complete coverage of the zenith, you can tilt the camera upwards a little, so that all four shots will just include the zenith and so will overlap when you stitch them together. The nadir hole will become correspondingly bigger, as the shots will then include less of the nadir area. That is of little consequence since the nadir can be patched with a separate shot anyway.

An alternative way of shooting would be to rotate the camera in the ring by about 30 degrees so that the diagonal of the frame is vertical and shoot without any tilt (or with maybe just a little). This increases the vertical angle of view to 182 degrees, as the zenith is not now cut off at the top of the frame but lies in a corner. Hopefully, Panoweaver will be able to cope with the rotated images. It&#039;s easy to do a quick test to see.

Re: Serious help required please.

Thank you John for clearing that up - thought I was going crazy wondering how it could be done with 2 shots! I have tried a lot of variations and getting terrible results at the moment, hence I was hoping that someone may have the same or similar setup to me and could tell me where I am going wrong. I have tried tilting it and still seem to be getting nowhere and am thinking I am missing something fundementaly important or obvious, but I am not seeing it! I am sure I have everything set up correctly, although not sure about the NPP so much. I guess I must keep trying, but am getting frustrated at so many terrible results!

Re: Serious help required please.

Small deviations from the ideal NPP and tilt positions should not result in "terrible" results. Minor stitching errors are all that would be expected. If you care to make a set of images available, I would be happy to try a stitch and see if there are any problems with the shots.

Re: Serious help required please.

Have come along way since the last post. Practice makes perfect and I am amazed at what subtle little differences can make! I am still getting a small &#039;hole&#039; at the zenith, but tilting to 7.5 decreases it and am trying other settings too. Hopefully I will crack the complexities of it in good time. I have been shooting outside mainly and on grass as it it is easier to edit the tripod out!! This came about after experimenting indoors on a tiled floor and that can take some serious editing!! A lot of trial and error ahead I feel!!

I am sure I will be posting more questions at some point in the near future, but again want to thank you for your help.